Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran make sweet music together

Taylor Swift’s unaccountable appetite for winsome English pop stars with bad hair continues with the revelation that she is dating Ed Sheeran. Just a few weeks after her cradle-snatching romance with One Direction moppet Harry Styles ended, Swift has, er, swiftly moved on to the ginger-haired darling of the tweenies who like their pop drippy and acoustic.

Sheeran, the indie Prince Harry, was very much the discreet English gentleman when quizzed by the Sun. "We’re good friends," he said, although the Taylor tattoo on his arm said rather more than his reticent words.

A source seemed to pitch the romance as Swift taking comfort in the arms of Sheeran after the breakup with Harry Styles. "Taylor has always loved Ed to bits," the source said. "He’s just an adorably sweet guy who makes her laugh and feel really confident. Harry had that irresistible bad boy thing but Taylor has realised she would rather give it a go with a guy who can make her happy on a different level." The quote was almost credible until the line about Harry being an "irresistible bad boy".

It seems to have been a romance conducted through coy statements to the press and, of course the international language of tattoos. Last December Sheeran told reporters, "I don’t think I’m Taylor’s type. If you look at all the dudes she’s dated, they’re all tall, brown hair, brown eyes, very attractive and all the girls scream for them. I’m chubby, ginger with blue eyes." Swift responded with a flirtatious, "I like people with red hair. I would do a ginger."

The couple will tour together this year. "He’s thrilled as he has always thought she’s amazing," that source continued. "They’ve both vowed not to have a nasty break-up no matter what happens." Doesn’t Sheeran realise that nearly all of Swift’s songs rely on nasty break-ups for source material?